U18 Real Madrid capped a thrilling four days of action at the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Finals by collecting its second ANGT crown, following the title it had won in 2015. Mario Nakic set ANGT Championship Game records with 33 points and a performance index rating of 41 in Madrid's 95-76 victory over U18 Mega Bemax Belgrade at Fernando Buesa Arena in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, where there were plenty of interesting developments during the entire weekend among the future stars of European basketball.
Madrid's second title highlighted many thrills in Vitoria-Gasteiz
In an event full of storylines, Madrid was the biggest spectacle as the Spanish powerhouse was clearly the best team of the tournament. Head coach Mariano De Pablos's team won the four games by an average of 29.5 points. If the four games from the ANGT Munich qualifier are added, then Madrid's average winning margin was 35.0 points over the eight games of the ANGT season. ANGT Finals MVP Nakic was just one of many star talents on the Madrid team, which also included fellow All-Tournament Team member Usman Garuba as well as Amar Sylla, Golden Dike, Boris Tisma and Ziga Samar. Garuba and Tisma can both be back for a title defense next season as they are a year younger than their teammates, as are Javier Ramos, Ruben Lopez and Dan Duscak. Matteo Spagnolo is two years younger. One question regarding many of Madrid's top players is if and when they might join Pablo Laso's senior Madrid team -- something that 2015 ANGT Finals MVP Luka Doncic did the following season.
Madrid became fifth team with two trophies
From a team standpoint, Madrid joined a group of five clubs with two ANGT crowns. The others are U18 Zalgiris Kaunas (2003, 2007), U18 FMP Belgrade (2008, 2009), U18 INSEP/CFBB Paris (2010, 2017) and U18 Rytas Vilnius (2012, 2018). The record champion remains U18 CSKA Moscow, which won the tournament three straight years, from 2004 to 2006.
Mega was one step short yet again
Mega was a great story. The Serbian club came to the finals off a dream ANGT Belgrade qualifier, where it knocked off city rival U18 Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade in the first-place game, snapping a Zvezda's eight-year winning streak in that event. Despite being a team without a standout star, Mega played stellar team basketball and got back to the ANGT Championship Game for the second time, following its 2017 appearance. But again Mega was tripped up just one step short of the club's first title, just like two years ago, when the team featured Goga Bitadze, who was recently named the Rising Star Trophy winner in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.